CEO Who Said Safety Is a “Waste” on Board Lost Submarine

"I think I can do this just as safely while breaking the rules."

Aged Like Milk

Update: OceanGate has announced that it believes the crew of five "have sadly been lost."

In a twist of irony, the CEO behind the company that operates the lost Titanic-seeking submarine is also a crew member on board the missing vessel.

In a statement provided to NBC News and other outlets, OceanGate Expeditions confirmed that its CEO, Stockton Rush, is also on board the Titan submersible that went missing on Sunday while traveling to explore the Titanic wreckage 13,000 feet below the surface.

As the clock keeps ticking and the sub continues to run out of air — that is, if the crew is still alive — some incriminating details about Rush and his company are coming to light.

As Insider noted, the CEO told a CBS reporter last year that he believes there should be "limits" to safety precautions.

"You know, at some point, safety is just pure waste," Rush told CBS' David Pogue during an episode of his "Unsung Science" podcast. "I mean, if you just want to be safe, don't get out of bed, don't get in your car, don't do anything. At some point, you're going to take some risk, and it really is a risk-reward question."

"I think I can do this just as safely while breaking the rules," he added at the time.

Get Lost

Pogue has since noted that after he climbed aboard the Titan last summer for his podcast, the vessel was "lost for a few hours" then, too.

The reporter also found that the company seemingly made use of "off-the-shelf components" such as a cheap video game controller, for its submarine.

And the drama surrounding OceanGate doesn't end there, either. Earlier today, The Daily Beast reported that Rush was sued for fraud in Florida earlier this year after a wealthy couple claimed he never refunded them for a journey they never embarked on back in 2017.

As NBC notes, OceanGate's confirmation that Rush is aboard the missing vessel means that we now know the identities of all but one of the five-person crew: the CEO, British billionaire and aviation company owner Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, and Dawood's son, Suleman.

Given that this is a steadily changing story, there are a lot of questions that still need to be answered — but knowing what we know now, spending $250,000 a ticket to see the Titanic wreckage may not have been the best investment.

More on the lost Titan: The Lost Submarine's Comms Are Reportedly Run by SpaceX